We decided to take Yotel up on their Robo-cation staycation promotion over the weekend.

The Robo-cation offer we got was for a normal room with a queen bed. This offer included free breakfast for both mornings and a $40 voucher for Komunyiti, their cafe/bar. What makes it a ROBO-cation, you ask? We also got a photo print out (with a sturdy frame-stand) of us with the two resident room service robots Yoshi and Yolanda, along with little plushies of em! Cuuuuute.

I feel it's important to emphasise that this staycation was during the covid-19 outbreak so there were probably many changes in their usual operations to ensure best practices in view of the pandemic.

YOTEL THE HOTEL

Concierge/lobby

The check-in process was smooth and the lady at the counter was nice. It took maybe 15 minutes. The same lady then took our picture with the robots using what I think was a regular smart phone.

Given the pandemic, there was a singular desk at the entrance to the hotel for signing in and temperature taking, in line with SG’s SafeEntry and safety guidelines. When we’d returned a short while before our check-out time, there was a massive queue of people waiting to sign in. I was reluctant to queue just to get back to our room so I hovered around the front of the queue to see if there may be a way we could get in since we are staying guests already. There wasn’t. So we queued. After a while I realised that we didn’t seem to be moving. I went to the front of the line and saw that the dude at the desk wasn’t there anymore! What the hell! A long-ass queue of people spanning the length of the space outside the hotel and they abandon the sign in desk? Probably a good thing that everyone was compliant and didn’t just march in since the dude was missing but seriously… That was handled terribly, in my opinion.

The check-out was automatic! We got an email thanking us and attaching our receipt/bill. We went down to the check-out machine (we were unclear on whether it was really automated checking out) and it said we’d already been checked out. Well, great!

Facilities

N/A since everything was closed due to the pandemic. We did get to walk around the gym for a few seconds and it appeared to be an excellent use of a small space, with whatever you may need at a gym.

Location

The location was fantastic. A very short walk to the heart of Orchard road, two 24hr eateries right outside (TCC and Cafe de Muse), even a Guardian.

General service and cleanliness

No room service available. We called up housekeeping to ask for our plushies and photo (we went out after setting our stuff down once checked in) and for some extra towels. The ring was so long I thought I wasn’t gonna get through. Yolanda delivered our goodies!

The overall cleanliness of common areas was fine (lobby, lifts, etc.). Our room was a tad dusty, though. Like, a layer of dust gathered on my iPad overnight and there was visible dust in some less-often bothered areas.

I liked that they asked for feedback after our stay, which I gave. However, I noticed I wasn’t able to add any remarks/comments to my ratings for each question unless I scored it a 6/10 or below. Sometimes I felt it was a 7 or above but I really, really wanted to leave a comment about it. This made me give 6 in such instances just so I could say something. What surprised me was that they followed up with a personalised email and it showed that they actually read what I wrote - that’s legit right there.

Our hotel room

Comfort/bath amenities

Most things were provided. No vanity kit. One bottle of hand sanitiser and 1 antiseptic wipe were additionally provided. Bathrobes not provided. There were only 2 full-sized bath towels and 1 floor towel - no hand towels or face towels.

I really liked their toothbrushes. We asked for 2 face towels (I forgot to ask for a hand towel) and it turns out the little hanging rack at the sink could barely fit our 2 face towels anyway. Shrugs.

Food and drink

Paper cups (for sanitation I assume), 1 stirrer. No spoons. Kettle, 2 water bottles, and a fridge. There were no bar snacks. The tea was Dilmah teas and the coffee was instant Nescafe.

Entertainment & electronics

There was free wifi but we didn’t test it so I can’t comment on speed. There was a TV but we couldn’t find any option to view channels. We just navigated the homepage that showed info about the hotel. There was a screensharing option for Android devices but it didn’t work at all with Liner’s Google Pixel 2.

Funnily enough the aux input was by the bed but I think it was actually far enough from the bed that most typical earpiece wires wouldn’t go that far? Even my 1m charging cable for my phone was just almost right.

There were two power outlets (besides the one by the floor for vacuum) - one was at the TV and one was bedside. I like that both were universal outlets. There were also two USB inlets at each power outlet - each set had one that was more powerful than the other (like faster charging).

Room features

There were 2 cabinets at the door - one containing the ironing board and the other containing the usual emergency tool (torch, etc.) and a full-sized umbrella! This was fantastic and we really put that umbrella to good use. The entrance area also had three pull-down rods forming hooks, which we found to be very useful seeing as there was limited surface space.

Below the TV was one of those tables that fold into the wall so we could pull it down to use it - we left it down the entire time because, well, surface space and also to access the power outlet.

One of the bedside tables was essentially the food & drink station. That’s where the kettle and all were placed. It had a pullout surface so you’d have extra table-space. There was a narrow space there in this table that housed a foldable luggage rack for additional luggage placement if needed.

The bed was a smart-bed that could be adjusted mechanically to sit-up or recline fully. I imagine this was also to provide the option of having more walking space. It was a cool function but personally I felt it was quite useless. The bed itself was also fucking uncomfortable. It was too sinking in many ways. I could fall asleep (I can fall asleep anywhere) but I didn’t have good sleep. It wasn’t even all that comfortable to just lounge in. The theory is that the mattress must be a certain type to allow for the bending required by the smart bed function… but this mattress needs more work in the comfort department.

The bathroom was okay. The sink was outside. The shower area was open without any curtain/door and the drains were those long ones. It was cool and all but we found that, if we were to shower together, that water would get everywhere. ): One person? Maybe not as bad as long as you stand close to the ‘inside’ of the shower area. The entire wall of the bathroom was a window and it had 2 layers of retractable blinds - one privacy, one blackout.

Dining at Yotel

Breakfasts by Komyuniti were meh. The first morning we went down and our food was blah. The breads were all soggy yet dry and I have doubts about whether our whole fruits were washed before serving. They had a sammich option which much resembled what you’d get in a McMuffin except larger. The only thing I enjoyed was the yogurt which was, obviously, just normal retail yogurt. They didn’t even have Milo/hot choc. ): The second morning we decided to have our breakfast in our rooms. We had to submit our order (checkbox form) in person the day/night before and then collect it in the morning. It was still exceptionally mediocre. Like, I can’t say it was bad but I also definitely cannot say it was good. The selection options for our breakfasts were also pretty lame. It was like 80% bread options: muffin option, pastry option, toast option, sammich option… Other than that, it was yogurt option, fruit option. They did have other options like a dimsum breakfast and one other theme of breakfast but it was like a set meal without options within. Also, the options like muffins, pastries, yogurt, fruit were only out of 2. At least between the two breakfasts the 2 options for these categories did change slightly.

We had dessert and drinks at Kommyuniti. Our first night we had dessert and drinks and the second night was just drinks. I had a lava cake and Liner had banana cake. I enjoyed my lava cake - it was really good. Liner’s banana cake was also really good. This place has good dessert. Our drinks were also not bad. We had high hopes for the drinks since the bartender As’ad had won awards.

Our first night I had a Fat Roger (“Fat-washed whisky, cacao-herb liqueur, chocolate bitters, smoked woodchips, cold ham, dried cranberries”) and Liner had Not a Champagne Cocktail (“dry gin, earl grey syrup, lemon, rosemary, prosecco”). Our second night we just had bespoke cocktails which were much nicer than our first night ones off the menu. Our drinks on the second night were, really, so good.

Staycation adventures

After checking in (after work), we headed out to find food. We hadn’t made any reservations and it was Friday night so it was maddening trying to find somewhere that had available seats without an hour-long wait. We finally settled on Kai Duck at Ngee Ann City. We had some peking duck skin appetisers, I had a grilled fish and Liner had ramen.

The first morning after breakfast, we headed to Far East Plaza where my hairdresser of 15 years is. We had an appointment there so we had some coffee at Community Coffee until our appointment time. It was great.

We got our hair cut at D’Sire Hair, by Anson himself. I have been going to Anson for hair cuts since 2005 and I will continue until he stops cutting hair. He’s always been able to cut my hair in a style that works with time - as in it doesn’t only look good until it grows. If he cuts my hair, it’s still in shape even when it gets too long for me. I haven’t had this experience with other places (during my wild period where I did radical shit with my hair and Anson’s then-salon wasn’t that sort). With work and all I don’t intend to do much with my hair other than keep it neat and in shape so it’s great to be able to do it without it going out of shape and gross once it grows 1 inch.

After our hair cut we hung around until high tea time. We had a reservation for high tea at 10 Scotts (Grand Hyatt hotel). It wasn’t great, to be honest.

It started with sourdough with smoked salmon; organic heirloom tomatoes; and cheese & ham. This was followed by ‘toasted crumpets’ which were more like mini pancakes, with clotted cream, raspberry jam, kaya, and caviar with sour cream. Next was two quiches - quiche lorraine and vegetable tart. This came with prawn + thousand island sauce and blue swimmer crab salad. The quiches were bleh, but the crab salad was actually pretty good. Then came the tower of treats - macarons, raspberry tarts and sorbet, coffee and chocolate things, tiny apples. Soon after, it was lobster bisque. The bisque was not bad. After about forever, the Wellington came. Liner liked it but I did not. It wasn’t the kind of Wellington we expected (i.e. Ramsay’s kind), it was like a packed slow cooked beef in the shape of a Wellington with a pastry around it. There was a lot of fat and other stuff so I wasn’t a fan. The entire high tea was extremely filling and I wouldn’t say all of it went well together. Some dishes were good but overall was a 3/10 for me. Additionally, it took like 20 mins for someone to even notice us so we could get our high tea started. It took just as long to get our bill settled at the end.

We walked around town and used the umbrella to its fullest! (Rainy, rainy weekend.) We were too full for dinner so we just had drinks at Komyuniti bar. The next morning we had our takeaway breakfast, walked outside for a while and came back to check out.

Once we'd checked out, we headed opposite to Natureland for full body massages. After all that walking the day before, it was very relaxing. They put us in separate rooms because they literally explicitly do not allow any kind of physical intimacy whatsoever.

We then walked around town until dinner time when we dined at The Sushi Bar. I love eating here, but it also makes our pockets whimper a little so we don’t come here so often.

Overall it was a lovely and much-needed staycation with each other, but that’s probably mostly contributed to by just being with each other. Heh.